Madeline Krois did not know that a new Dodge Dart would arrive in July, but she is not in the market for a trade-in, anyway. Her 1973 runs fine, with 189,784 miles on it the last time she checked, which was the last time she filled her Dart up and put it in the garage. It has resided there since Dec. 16, 1972, the day she paid $2,900 in cash at Van Ness Dodge.

"I wanted a car that started at the first turn of the key, and it still does," says Krois, a retired office clerk. Though her two-door model is called the Swinger, it was a square car for square people.

Now, a Dart Swinger driving through the Mission is hipper than a hipster on a fixie. Nancy Myers, owner of a '71 Swinger nicknamed Cherry Bomb, has had her red Dart followed through the neighborhood by a blue Dart.

"I get a lot of offers to buy it, from the locals," says Myers, who likes to wear her bowling dress as she drives Cherry from her business, EHS Pilates on Valencia Street, to her women's league at Mission Bowling Club.

The 2013 Dodge Dart is being built in Illinois, but before you start thinking of a push-button automatic transmission and trusty slant-six engine, it is important to know that the new car has the chassis of an Alfa Romeo Giulietta, with the basic model featuring a Fiat engine and transmission. If you are wondering what the car marketed as "the all-new Dodge Dart" has to do with the old one, the answer is the name. Focus groups responded most warmly to the name Dart, so Dart it is.

"We felt it deserved a new name, so we looked at a number of historic nameplates and newer names," says Kathy Graham, product PR manager for Chrysler Group. "Dart overwhelmingly had the best resonance with empty-nesters and the youth market."

The design is by Dodge, a brand of Chrysler, which makes this the first joint product since the forced marriage of Chrysler to Fiat S.p.A. of Turin, Italy, in June 2009.

During its last production run, from 1960 to 1976, more than 3.6 million Darts cars came off the line in two-door, four-door, midsize, compact, fastback and station wagon. If you had to pick the classic, it would be the 1963, the first Dart convertible and the first Dodge marketed y to young buyers. The '63 is subtly curvaceous, with a chrome arrow running back to the word "Dart," in Tinker Bell script. Aerodynamic and available only as a compact, the '63 is also the rarest of Darts. Only 34,000 were built, one-third the production run of the '62 and one-eighth the run of the '64.

Reliable engine

The slant-six engine lacked the power of a V-8 but made up for it in reliability. Named for the 30-degree angle that its six cylinders fit under the hood, the slant-six is so revered that there are competing videos on You Tube where you can watch a '63 Dart engine turn over and listen to it vroom and idle.

Tom "Click" Magliozzi of "Car Talk" (on NPR) drove a '63 in real life and in cartoon life when he portrayed a lovable Dart nicknamed Rusty in the Pixar film "Cars." Click & Clack - Tom and his brother Ray - even test-drove one for their Car Talk website.

"The Dart starts immediately - every single time. It never fails" was their report. "This is more than can be said for some newer cars."

The new Dart retails for $15,995, and you'll have to leave San Francisco to find one. The best way to find an old Dart is to visit Allied Engine Auto Repair on Ellis Street and get to know owner Paul Grech, who acts as more of an adoption agent than a mechanic.

"I didn't know anything about Dodge Darts," says Lily Fighera, a milliner who wanted a vintage convertible and let Grech make the fit. "One day he called me up and said, 'I've got the car for you.' And as soon as I saw it, I wanted it bad."

That sporty '63 Dart GT had come out from Minnesota, as had Fighera, a good omen. The asking price was $5,500- twice the original sticker price. But price was not the object. Separation was. The woman who owned it kept changing her mind. The back and forth went on long enough for Fighera to become engaged to Mark Fighera. He was looking for a gift when the final call came.

He drove over with cash before the seller could get remorse. "We gave her visitation rights," he says. When the wedding day came along, they drove the Dart, nicknamed Daisy, from the Swedenborgian Church to the Fairmont, drinking Champagne while racing a motorized cable car that ferried their guests.

When the kids came along, the Dart was not conducive to a modern car seat arrangement. So they bought a mom car, but now the kids, Sofia and Dominick, are 9 and 6, and the Dart is the only mom car they want to ride in. Fighera drives out to pick them up at Lafayette Elementary School, piling kids in the back, two to a lap belt.

As it turns out, Tim Dale, owner of both the Yoga Tree and a '63 nicknamed the Red Rooster, has kids in the same grades, so two 1963 Dart convertibles, a blue and a red, can be nose to tail in the pickup line.

"If they would have kept the '63 going, they'd never have to make another car," says Dale, who has turned the odometer twice on his convertible.

"It is so fun to drive," Fighera says. "Every time I stop somewhere, people shout, 'What year?' "

Push buttons

The push buttons still work on the transmission and the cigarette lighter, as does the switch that puts the top down. But the engine is not original and neither is the color. That happens when cars are sold, but it never happened to Madeline Krois.

Her green 1973, nicknamed Willy, has required new pistons, shocks and brakes. Everything else is as it was when she drove home to the Inner Sunset on Dec. 16, 1972. She remembers the day well.

"My sister came along with me and talked me into getting the Swinger, which is the two door," she says. "I've regretted it for 40 years. I wish it was a four door."